THE MENTALIST Shocker: Our Top 5 Favorite Moments From “Nothing Gold Can Stay”

Vacation Time!
Jane wants to go to a “rustic” cabin, and I’m with Lisbon when she equates that word with no running water. She was hoping to go to a place where they leave a mint on the pillow. Jane later gets Lisbon mints and agrees to her luxurious terms. Let’s see if it happens.

The Suspects!
Jane knows how to win friends and influence enemies, when he walks into the bank where there was an armored car heist and asks who the accomplice was. While the bank manager yells about how outrageous it all is (Cho: Not yet), Jane shakes everyone’s hands and discovers one sweaty-palmed guy named Ken with a burner phone who passes out under Cho’s intense questioning. I also want to fall into Cho’s arms, so I don’t blame ya, sweaty guy. Ken got himself a lawyer and swears he fainted from hypoglycemia. He’s let go.

The case!
Abbott puts Cho in charge of the case as a test run for his new position. Vega tries to get Cho excited about his new position, but he’s like “This is my excited face” which is the same as his unhappy face and his I don’t give a crap face.

Lisbon and Jane study the security tape. They figure out two of the robbers are brothers, and they don’t trust the third guy. The reason Jane knows they’re brothers is because they both have the one leg shorter than the other. When Cho and Vega go into a diner, Vega catches something weird about the boot of one of the customers. Cho calls for backup.

But everything goes totally fubar. The two guys try to leave, and Cho blocks their way. He asks where the third guy is, and that’s when he comes out shooting. The original two guys escape. Vega stays with the third guy, so Cho can pursue them. Cho finds one in the kitchen and gets him to drop his gun and get on the ground. Then he hears gunshots coming from the diner, and he’s distracted for a split second. The robber picks up the gun, but Cho is faster and shoots him. Then his brother comes out, shoots at Cho, and drags his brother away. They get into a car. Cho shoots out the back window, but they get away.

Vega is shot!
Dang, I wanted to fast-forward through this. Cho tries to stem the flow of blood, and it’s so hard to hear Vega struggle to breathe. But it’s even worse when she STOPS.

When Jane and Lisbon get to the hospital, Abbott leads them into a room where Vega is lying in a bed, and it’s not good, because she has absolutely no tubes or anything attached to her. It’s horrible, but I’m kind of glad they got this out of the way early, otherwise I would have just been waiting for the hammer to fall. But Wylie? He breaks my heart all over again as he stares at her desk.

Detective Portis of Austin Homicide is taking over the Vega case, since the dept. can’t investigate a case involving their own people. They’ve identified the suspects. Aaron Brunell, aka “Ace,” his bro who got shot, Tommy, and Steve Sellers. Abbott makes it clear Portis can have the collar, but the suspects belong to them.

Cho’s got Vega’s blood all over his white shirt as Portis interviews him. Then Cho runs into Abbott, who’s about to call Vega’s aunt, her only living relative. Cho insists on doing it. He uses Abbott’s office, where Vega’s application and picture are on the screen. Cho breaks down then I break down. This is not the way I wanted to see Cho have an expression. I much prefer the dimples from last episode when he found out about his promotion. Damn, this episode is hard to get through.

They do find the robbers, but while Portis wants a dragnet and helicopters, Jane suggests they remove all of the police presence and make the bad guys feel safe. Since the bad guys are trying to find a place to get bandages, Lisbon suggests putting their people in drug stores and letting the guys come to them. Abbott agrees, OF COURSE.

But when one stupid officer rides up the the drug store with his siren on, Ace gets a hostage, shoots at Abbott, then throws the hostage in a minivan and gets away. The team gives chase.

It seems they have the bad guys cornered in the hostage’s house. She’s an older diabetic woman who lives with her nephew. Jane suggests driving a wedge between the brothers and the Sellers. They send Cho to the door with pizza. Cho tells Ace he can have a doc for his brother when he surrenders. I don’t think Ace is thrilled with that answer.

The plan seems to be working, as the team listens in on the mic they placed in the round pizza thingie. Sellers thinks Ace was making a deal with Cho when he asked about the doc.

Jane has a plan, but for once, Cho isn’t on board. He got a look inside, and he thinks they can take the robbers. Abbott wants to know if this is revenge, and Cho cops to it. Abbott wants to give Jane’s plan a shot first, but I’m looking at Cho’s face, and I’m seeing a “HELL, NO!”

Jane’s plan is to tell a reporter that a bad guy has started negotiations for surrender. Sellers buys it. Tommy just lies dying on the couch. But the team feels the situation is escalating, since Sellers attacked the nephew. Even though Jane begs for more time, it’s no-go. Unsurprisingly, Jane pleads with Lisbon not to go in. He insists Abbott and Cho just want to kill these guys, and he’s not wrong. Lisbon is not swayed.

Desperate Jane goes to the door as the team freaks out. He negotiates him for one of the other hostages. He says he can help the brothers. The nephew goes free, and Jane goes in. Lisbon encourages them to let Jane go through with his wedge plan, which is to hypnotize the diabetic lady, who was totally fine when Jane walked in, and make her have a panic attack, so he can convince the robbers she’s gonna go into a diabetic coma.

Ace takes the lady, while Sellers stays with Jane, who immediately tells Sellers there was more money than he thinks they took. Sellers doesn’t believe him, so Abbott tells the same reporter to say it was 800K. Bickering ensues. When sellers steps out for a pee break, Jane lies and tells Ace that Sellers said he didn’t want to die in prison. This freaks out Ace who runs to the car to find Sellers going through the cash. Sellers shoots Ace. The team comes in, and Cho gets to shoot Sellers, who is the one who shot Vega. I counted seven shots, but it looks like he lives. Jane appears shell-shocked.

The funeral. I can’t handle it when I see Wylie’s face. Cho and Abbott carry the casket. Cho presents the flag to the aunt. My heart is BREAKING. Have I mentioned how difficult this episode is to get through?

Jane Leaves!
He says he can’t watch Lisbon do this work. He can’t go through that again. Lisbon points out that Jane walked into the house, but of course it’s so she wouldn’t. And when she says he could have died, he says that wouldn’t have hurt HIM. Oh, Jane. After Lisbon says he can’t keep pulling her from the path of oncoming trains, he tells her he’s leaving and gives her the choice to come with him. He doesn’t wait for an answer and just tells her he’s going someplace nice before he kisses her on the cheek and leaves.

THANK GOODNESS THAT’S OVER! I’m sure Jane comes back next week, since there’s only a few episodes left, but still. Nothing happy in this episode except Vega at the beginning. Lisbon, I’m sure you’re right and there’s an afterlife where Vega gets to be with her dad.

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Good episode. Only two complaints. The major one is with the CBS promo department. They spilled in every commercial for the episode about a death and it was soon obvious that it would be Vega.

The other is a minor quibble, there is no way anyone would assign the investigation of an FBI agent’s death to a local police department. Departments always are the lead in catching killers of their own officers. In Philly, and other departments I am sure, they even use the dead officer’s handcuffs to restrain the suspect when arrested.

Jane’s fear for Lisbon is a good story line and well handled so far. I am sure Jane and Lisbon will work it out; this isn’t based on spoilers, just years of TV watching. What I don’t know is that ho shifts their position. Will Lisbon leave the Bureau, or take a safer position or will Jane accept Lisbon’s career risks?

CJ Stevens

Gosh, I hope Lisbon stays with the Bureau. No matter where she is or what she’s doing, Jane will treat Lisbon like a delicate glass vase.

I was just glad the guy readily handed over all of the decisions to Abbott. I hate the cliche of another department moving in and acting smarmy all over the place. He was almost like a non-entity, and I appreciated that.